UKZN continues its top rankings spree

The University of KwaZulu-Natal has done it again; the latest feat being ranked one of the top four universities in Africa by two independent, internationally recognised ranking measurements.

Just recently, the UKZN was named one of the top 100 universities in the Times Higher Education (THE) Young University Rankings 2018. THE is the leading provider of higher education data for the world's research-led institutions. Ranked number 83, UKZN is the only South African University to have featured on this list.

In the first latest ranking by uniRank, UKZN is listed as the number one most popular university in Africa. uniRank aims to provide a non-academic League Table of the top South African universities based on valid, unbiased and non-influenceable Web metrics provided by independent Web intelligence sources rather than data submitted by the universities themselves.

Assessment is based on the university's Web presence and popularity in terms of estimated traffic, trust/authority and quality link popularity. This is especially intended to help international students and academic staff to understand how popular a specific higher education institution is in a foreign country.

In the second latest ranking: Universal Ranking by Academic Performance (URAP) for subjects published by the Informatics Institutes, UKZN is listed as having achieved fourth place jointly with the University of Witwatersrand. URAP's key focus is on academic performance which is measured on six academic performance indicators. Since URAP is an academic performance-based ranking, publications constitute the basis of the ranking methodology. Both quality and quantity of publications and international research collaboration performance are used as indicators.

According to a statement issued by URAP, the ranking lists the top 1 000 universities in the world across 61 fields of study. UKZN and Wits tied in fourth place, being ranked in 21 fields each. However, where UKZN stands apart from Wits is its unique placing in three subjects; namely Environmental Engineering, Chemical Engineering and Mechanical Engineering, where no other South African universities featured.

"We are very proud of the scholarly and scientific work of our academics and researchers," said Normah Zondo, UKZN acting Executive Director, Corporate Relations. "Their contributions underpin the excellent standing of the University of KwaZulu-Natal at a global level," she said.

For more information, visit https://businesstech.co.za/news/lifestyle/262349/these-are-the-top-universities-in-south-africa-based-on-their-performance-in-38-subjects/ and https://www.4icu.org/top-universities-africa/.